Excellent strategy game by Valour on October 25, 2008
The only thing preventing Gemfire from having been a true RPG classic was the same mistake made by its developer, KOEI, in other strategy games like Operation Europe: limited storyline. You play in a kingdom where 6 gemstones, each of which controls a powerful sorceror (a 7th item controls the powerful dragon), have been divided among 6 countries and rulers.
They were originally taken via conquest by a powerful and tyrannical king, but have been released through the impudent choice of the king's daughter (who then got locked in the castle tower for the rest of her days), thus providing power once more to rulers throughout the land, and setting the stage for a massive war among the peoples.
You have a choice of several different scenarios, and get to choose one of several different rulers (and thus countries) to play as. Throughout the game you must not only fight battles but also manage each one of your lands, deciding how to divvy up your gold and food (which can be used to buy more soldiers or special 5th units, exchanged at the marketplace - and exchange rates change, given to the people, used for farming, put into building up your castle walls, and used to spy on enemy lands).
In battles you control 4 basic units - 2 swordsmen units, 1 calvary unit, and 1 archery unit - and a selected 5th special unit which can be either your sorcerer (the catch is that while your sorcerer recharges hit points after each battle, he or she will be unavailable for several days afterwards) or a unit hired by the land (who also requires upkeep pay every 3 months). You fight a defending force (also with 4-5 units), who is guarded by either a castle or a multitude of fences depending on their castle strength, on a randomly generated terrain map. The number of soldiers in each basic unit depends on the size of your army, with each unit having a quarter of the total soldiers, and any remaining soldiers going to the 1st swordsman unit.
Sounds like a great game, right? And it is. Unfortunately, it is short. Though winning a scenario can take a long time, once you win - that's it. You see the same ending scene regardless of which scenario you choose, and regardless of how you win (soon or fast does not matter). KOEI should have linked the scenarios together so that to see the final end scene you'd need to win all scenarios and focused more on storyline and plot. Thus, their game is a prodigy of strategy warfare, just as their other games (like Operation Europe) are, but suffers from this critical mistake in gameplay.
